Entertainment

USA's 'Graceland Undercover' Gives Second Screen a Starring Role

When the hot new show Graceland debuts on USA Network June 6, the action won't be confined to the TV screen. It will launch alongside new second screen initiative, Graceland Undercover, that promises to take viewers inside the characters and the action.

Graceland is the latest show from creator Jeff Eastin, the man behind the USA hit White Collar. It's a show about a house in Southern California occupied by agents from three different government agencies — the DEA, the FBI and ICE. The agents live together and work undercover on a variety of cases and stings. There was a real "Graceland" in the 1990s, comprised of undercover agents from different agencies, and aspects of the show are based on those agents and their stories. The ensemble cast includes Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) and Aaron Tveit (Les Miserables).

USA is one of the television networks that really gets social and digital. From White Collar to Psych to Covert Affairs, the network has decided to invest in digital in a big way.

With Graceland, one of the summer's most-anticipated new shows, the network is going all out on creating an engaging second screen experience.

Dubbed Graceland Undercover, the mobile-optimized website and iOS app (coming soon) takes viewers inside the Graceland house and unlocks special features, additional scenes and offers up a closer look at characters and scenarios.

Jessica Sutherland, vice president of digital content development at USA said that the goal of Graceland Undercover was to "take the show and marry it as the perfect convergence of digital storytelling and second screen content."

Working closely with show creator Jeff Eastin, the teams at USA and Mobients worked to create a unique experience that works both in real-time and in subsequent viewings.

Going Undercover With "Graceland Undercover"

Viewers that visit the Graceland Undercover website during the broadcast will be given real-time cues and chances to unlock content. The website acts as a virtual map of the Graceland house and world. Fans can explore more about characters, explore the set from a 360-degree angle and as the show progresses, additional areas and puzzles are unlocked.

A gamification element also exists, rewarding users with points for unlocking certain sections and completing certain tasks. These points can be used to gloat over friends on the leaderboard or for chances to win prizes sponsored by the network and its advertisers.

While the mobile optimized website is cool, the real magic happens with the more robust second screen app. That app should be available next week and will let iPhone and iPad owners join the experience whenever they want. Using ACR (audio content recognition), the app will work with linear and time-shifted viewings of the show. It also offers some other features, such as the ability to track character movements throughout the world as it happens on the show.

The experience also includes more than 60 digital storylines that run across all 12 episodes of the first season. These videos were shot with the Graceland cast and reveal a different glimpse of situations from the show from a different perspective or angle.

KIA is a sponsor of the show and has created its own area within the app and website that lets fans explore the "garage" in Graceland, while also offering a chance to win prizes.

Working With Creators From the Beginning

Over the last three years, networks have increasingly started to integrate digital and social elements into their programming. In the beginning, most of those efforts were purely marketing based and tacked-on ad-hoc to an existing property after it was already created. This can be successful, but the results are usually one-dimensional.

What's happening now, according to Sutherland, is that show runners are starting to take digital into account at series or season inception. In the case of Graceland, Sutherland said that creator Jeff Eastin "is very active in social" and was very willing to collaborate on the role digital could play in the show. "There was so much more that he wanted to say than could fit in a 43-minute episode," Sutherland said. Graceland Undercover gives Eastin and his team a chance to tell more of the story and reveal more about the characters.

Viewers also benefit because it creates an experience that can last beyond just the broadcast of the show. Sutherland told me that the team plans to take fan requests and responses into account when crafting digital content.

While we've still not reached the holy grail of second screen experiences — where the second screen content plays a direct role in informing what happens on the primary screen — we're getting closer than ever.

The trick is to get viewers to tune in and embrace these experiences in numbers that make it worthwhile. Studies already show that television is watched overwhelmingly with a tablet or smartphone in hand.

The challenge that networks, including USA, face is getting those viewers to engage in these types of experiences while watching a show.

If Graceland Undercover is a success, Sutherland said that USA will consider bringing this kind of ACR real-time sync to some of its other programs. "Of course, we'll always look at these things on a show-by-show basis," Sutherland said, noting the importance of matching the right show with the right strategy, "but we're definitely interested in doing more."

Graceland premieres Thursday at 10 p.m. EDT on USA. Graceland Undercover will be available on the mobile web Thursday and starting next week on iOS.

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